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Critical Care (episode)
The Doctor's program is taken from Voyager, and he is put to work on a vast hospital ship. Summary On board a large vessel, a crowded hospital ship, a trader named Gar is trying to sell medical supplies to Chellick, an administrator. He suggests this time he does not have any substandard merchandise, but rather an amazing little gadget, the Doctor's mobile emitter. He activates it, and the bewildered Doctor appears. He demands to know why he was kidnapped as Chellick negotiates for price. Then, according to an announcement, another batch of injuries comes in. With some threats from Gar, and seeing all of these wounded here, he starts to help them. He finds their primitive technology almost unworkable, but does the best he can. Meanwhile, Kim and Paris return from a holographic hockey game on , and go to the Doctor for some minor bumps and bruises. However, the hologram who responds simply asks them to state the nature of the medical emergency, scans them, and tells them to take an analgesic. He does not even listen to the long story Paris starts to tell. When his program is examined, it turns out to be a fake from one of his old training files. The real doctor is missing. Captain Janeway demands to know how Gar got away with him. Neelix explains he spent the night in sickbay, claiming to have gotten food poisoning at dinner, otherwise unattended. Lt. B'Elanna Torres identifies when the training program was activated: just before he left Voyager. The Captain starts the search. Neelix later explains it was his fault. Gar said his dinner was bland, so Neelix added a few spices to add flavor, not taking his physiology into account. He may have actually been ill instead of simply faking it. If he had never gone to sickbay, he would never have developed a plan to kidnap the Doctor. Janeway reassures him with her experience: men like Gar will find an opportunity like that without anyone's help. Aboard the medical ship, the Doctor's abilities impress many of the medical staff, including Voje, a doctor. He offers to contact his ship for more supplies, but Voje says that establishing communications would take a lot of paper work; he will have to work with what he's given. As he continues down a line of patients waiting for proton imaging, he makes small talk with Tebbis, a mine worker who can diagnose himself correctly. The scanning device also picks up a chronic condition, however, which he hasn't been treated for. When the Doctor asks why, Voje tells him it's because he doesn't have a high enough TC. Chellick then shows up and informs the Doctor he has negotiated with Gar, and acquired his program. The Doctor refuses his instruction to follow him, since he is being illegally detained. The administrator explains that the allocator — their main computer — indicates his talents would be best used on Level Blue, where the patients who are most important are cared for. The Doctor reluctantly follows, and finds a room with a doctor per person instead of a doctor per dozen. These patients, the administrator explains, have a higher treatment coefficient, and it determines the level of care their receive. It is derived through a complex formula based on the individual's value to society, a prioritizing system for limited resources. The Doctor doesn't like it at all, but that is what the Dinaali do, says Doctor Dysek, the Chief of Medicine. They used to be a dying race from ecological disasters. Once introduced, the Doctor wants to know what is going on in Level Red, the level above, but the administrator and the chief talk about what the Doctor will do in the third person, and ignore his complaints. Meanwhile, Voyager drops out of warp to find a probe emitting a false warp signature which they have followed. At this dead end, Tuvok comes with with a suggestion: Gar traded them some iridium ore with a short half life, so he probably got it from nearby. Cross referencing sensor logs and long range scans quickly finds an asteroid which appears to be a mining colony. When they arrive, they are hailed, and informed by an angry alien that he wants his iridium back. When Janeway say they traded it, he insists it was stolen from him. She agrees to give the iridium back — which is only half the amount Gar stole — and he in return tells her where induction units he also stole came from; a planetoid called Velos. That's where they look next. The Doctor, meanwhile, admires the surgical technique of Doctor Dysek, and tries to get him to allow contact with Voyager. Dysek dryly repeats that Chellick authorizes all communications. The Doctor watches a nurse give a cytoglobin injection to a patient. She asks a console for it, it is authorized, and she administers it quickly. The Doctor asks if this patient also has the chromoviral disease, but Dysek says no, it is used to prevent arterial aging. The Doctor notes her arteries are in perfect health, and Dysek indicates it is a preventative regimen. That makes the Doctor coldly angry, because Tebbis, the boy on Level Red, could die someday and yet was denied one. Dysek repeats that their society is far better off since following the allocator's protocols, and if his TC rises, he will get good treatment as well. The Doctor returns to Level Red and looks at Tebbis again. His condition has deteriorated further. Voje says it's because his coenzyme allotment has been reduced; his TC is too low. The Doctor suggests they raise it; if it is a statistical function, he can just input more data. Voje doesn't like it, but the Doctor talks to him about the moral imperative in medicine, and he is willing to go along. They settle on an expertise in neutronics. But when Voje inputs it, the data is rejected. Even Tebbis is willing to let the Doctor off with a clean conscience. Instead, the Doctor returns to blue level, and informs the nurse that one of the patients requires an additional cytoglobin injection, which he will administer himself. He instead takes it back to Level Red, and after passing dozens of dying patients, gives it to Tebbis. Meanwhile, Voyager is still following Gar's trail. Kipp, a merchant at Velos, informs them Gar took the induction units on consignment. He was persuaded to do so by a buyer he has know for years. The buyer now knows it was a mistake. It was a suggestion from his wife, who has now left him. She says that she ran off with Gar, and is surprised to see Janeway looking for him, perhaps to steal him from her. To talk her out of this, she says Tuvok is her husband, a most unpleasant situation for Tuvok and amusing for the bridge crew. He explains that they have a business opportunity for him, and she says he is on his way to the gambling tournament on Selek IV. Meanwhile, Tebbis feels better. He asks why he got the cytoglobin, if the doctor has done something wrong, and the Doctor lies. He says that he convinced Chellick to recalculate his TC, and he is now authorized for cytoglobin. The Doctor returns with more cytoglobin, and asks Voje to distribute it. Voje refuses, but Tebbis volunteers. The Doctor is pleased, and explains where to administer the injections, which is when Voje helps so they will finish before they are caught. It isn't very long before Dysek asks the Doctor why he is prescribing unnecessary medications for his patients. He tries to explain to Dysek that a good administrator never lets his resources shrink, or they will not get it when they need it. Those resources are essential. When Chellick asks if there is a problem, Dysek says no; he is learning the system well. Voje is amazed that so many of the patients here are doing well. The Doctor takes it in stride, and tells him he will arrange for other medications to also be funneled here. Tebbis is doing much better now, and he wants the Doctor to say he is still sick so he can help. If he is declared well, he will be sent back down to the mines like his father, and will never get medical training. The Doctor says he doesn't plan to be here long enough to teach him what he need to know about medicine, but will see what he can do. Voyager finds Gar's ship — and biosigns — and drops out of warp right on top of him, latching on a tractor beam. Gar hails them, and when they demand the Doctor, he claims to know nothing. When he tries to break their tractor beam with a feedback pulse, Janeway just beams him to the brig. Meanwhile, the Doctor finds much to his dismay that Tebbis has been transferred to Level White — the morgue. He talks to Chellick, who after requiring his patient number to find him, explains that he died of untreated secondary infection. He should have died from the chromo-virus, but someone gave him unauthorized cytoglobin injections. He knows what the Doctor has been up to. After a hot debate about medical ethics, Chellick informs him that he is restricted to Blue Level, and directly connected to the allocator, who will monitor him down to the minute. Tuvok is interrogating Gar, and it is not going well. He is attempting to threaten a mind meld — "an invasive, disturbing procedure" — when Neelix walks in with dinner. Gar starts eating it enthusiastically. Neelix is glad that it wasn't his cooking that made Gar sick before, and that Gar was faking his food poisoning. Then Neelix tells Gar that the dinner is based upon Talaxian wormroot. Some people react badly. He hopes Gar won't feel any symptoms from it, like painful abdominal spasms. He does, and when Tuvok calls sickbay, Neelix tells him there is an antidote, but only the Doctor is allowed to administer it. This makes Gar more cooperative. When Tuvok takes him aside and asks him about ethics, Neelix says there is no physiological damage — just as there isn't during a mind meld. Doctor Voje is working hard on a patient, when one of the nurses informs him to he must prepare the patient for discharge. Voje very angrily informs him that he discharges patients at the end of the shift, and that's not over yet. The allocator immediately orders him to Level Blue to assist Doctor Dysek in surgery. Voje arrives to find the Doctor working quickly from patient to patient. It was he who sent for Voje. He says he need Voje to smuggle his mobile emitter away, despite the fact the 12 patients they treated are being sent home (and will probably die). He manages to persuade him seconds before the allocator deactivates him. Soon after the Doctor is working on level red, Chellick considers him too much trouble, and attempts to deactivate him. That's when the Doctor swings him around and injects him with the chromo-virus and blood factors from Tebbis. He plans a new lesson in empathy by making Chellick a patient on level red. When the allocator scans him, it reads Tebbis, who it begins denying medication to. The Doctor demands the supply of cytoglobin being used as a preventative treatment be used instead to treat every patient on this level. Meanwhile, Voyager finally finds the ship and the Doctor's program. Unfortunately, Torres can't get a lock, because it is interfacing with the main computer. When the ship is hailed, the allocator answers and states that Administrator Chellick is unavailable, and he is the only one authorized to speak with alien species. As the Doctor continues to examine Chellick, Dysek shows up. Chellick orders him to administer cytoglobin, but Dysek cannot do that, because it is not authorized for level red patients. Dysek is not in league with the Doctor, but his insights into the system are something he finds profound, such as resource allocations for Level Blue. One way to increase those allocations, the Doctor suggests, would be to move several of the level red patients — including Chellick — to level blue. Chellick agrees, just as Chakotay and Torres beam inside. Once back on the ship, the Doctor tries to come to terms with his actions at the hospital. He gives Seven of Nine a clean bill of health during a routine scan, but before she leaves, he asks her to perform a check-up on his own program. Seven asks if there is something wrong, and the Doctor replies that there is not — he only wants a routine check given that he has been off the ship for an extended period of time and interfaced with an alien computer. Seven reports that all of his systems are within acceptable parameters. The Doctor then requests that she specifically examine his ethical subroutines and admits his ulterior motive for the check-up. He explains that he intentionally poisoned a man in the interest of saving dozens of patients, an action that Seven appreciates and likens to the Borg philosophy of sacrificing individual concerns for those of a collective. The Doctor expresses that he does not wish to aspire to Borg ideals. Seven examines his ethical subroutines one last time but advises him that unfortunately, she must also give him a clean bill of health. Memorable Quotes "I'm making you a patient in your own hospital!" : - The Doctor, to Chellick after injecting him with the chromo-virus "That feeling you get from healing someone — infectious, isn't it?" : - The Doctor "It's not ''that, it's just...I already have a man." : - '''Janeway', as she takes Tuvok's hand to demonstrate to the adulteress that she has no romantic interest in Gar Background Information * Debi A. Monahan, Gregory Itzin and John Durbin all guest starred in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Monahan played Melissa in , Itzin played Ilon Tandro in and Hain in , and Durbin played Traidy in . * Gar is trading in iridium, which is claimed to have a very short half life, allowing Tuvok to deduce how far away Gar could have gotten with it. This would have been a (synthetic) radioactive isotope of iridium, with a half life ranging somewhere from 2.5 hours (195Ir) to 73.83 days (192Ir). * On their way from a hockey game, Kim refers to a Nausicaan guard, but there is no "guard" position in hockey. Considering, however, that centuries have passed it is possible that the names of positions or even the rules of hockey have changed. * Among the costumes and prop items from this episode which were sold off on the It's A Wrap! sale and auction on eBay was the costume of Paul Holmquist. Video and DVD releases *UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, Paramount Home Entertainment): Volume 7.3, . *As part of the VOY Season 7 DVD collection. Links and References Main Cast *Kate Mulgrew as Captain Kathryn Janeway *Robert Beltran as Commander Chakotay *Roxann Dawson as Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres *Robert Duncan McNeill as Lieutenant Tom Paris *Ethan Phillips as Neelix *Robert Picardo as The Doctor *Tim Russ as Lieutenant Tuvok *Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine *Garrett Wang as Ensign Harry Kim Guest Stars *John Kassir as Gar *Gregory Itzin as Dysek *Paul Scherrer as Voje *Dublin James as Tebbis ;And *Larry Drake as Chellick Co-Stars *Christinna Chauncey as Level Blue Nurse *Stephen O'Mahoney as Med Tech *Jim O'Heir as Husband *John Durbin as Alien Miner *Debi A. Monahan as Adultress *John Franklin as Kipp Uncredited Co-Stars *Pam Blackwell as a Dinaali patient *Bill Blair as a Jye administrator *Brooks Bonstin as a Dinaali miner *Tarik Ergin as Ayala *Paul Holmquist as a Level Blue nurse *Lisa Vanasco as a Dinaali patient *Unknown performers as **Dinaali Chief Engineer **Three Dinaali patients References Allocator; analgesic; anesthizine; antigen; asteroid; Ayala; chromovirus; class T nebula; coenzyme; cortical bypass; cytogenic; cytoglobin; dilithium; Dinaali; Dralian; dysplasia; food poisoning; Gammadan mining facility; Hippocratic Oath; hockey; Hospital Ship 4-2; induction unit; iridium; Jye; Nausicaan; necrobiosis; neural blocker; neural monitor; neutronics; osteal extravasation; proto-humanoid; proton imaging; Selek IV; selenide; Talaxian wormroot; Telsian; tractor beam; treatment coefficient; Velos; viremia; warp signature External link * Critical Care at StarTrek.com |next= }} Category:VOY episodes de:Kritische Versorgung fr:Critical Care nl:Critical Care